March 30, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM GOOGLE

This is pretty awesome. Plug these equations into your search bar. Google originally shared this post: sqrt(x*x+y*y)+3*cos(sqrt(x*x+y*y))+5 from -20 to 20 sin(5.5x)*cos(5*y)+x*x+1 x is from -1 to 1, y is from -1 to 1, z is from 0.1 to 2.8 tanh(y(y^4+5x^4-10(x^2)(y^2))/(x^2+y^2)^4)
March 30, 2012

BELOW IS A REPOST OF MY FINAL COMMENT IN…

Below is a repost of my final comment in this thread: https://plus.google.com/115633934578783827271/posts/fzQHDwgtLSE __ +Alex Schleber Thanks for helping me find my community, its definitely appreciated. I agree without hesitation about the need for deep #systemhacking . And undoubtedly, there are thousands of minor system hacks that are waiting to be exploited for building a better world within the existing infrastructure, and that possibly will result in some genuine social change. +Jennifer Pahlka‘s amazing TED talk that went around a few weeks ago is, I think, a slightly less nihilistic call to hack the system than the Cult of Done, but the two approaches compliment and reinforce each other well. https://plus.google.com/u/0/117828903900236363024/posts/1XLMigFwWZz But these are just minor hacks, patchwork fixes on a broken and sinking system. Latching onto that system is a losing prospect, and relying on these hacks is fundamentally unsustainable. There is only one system hack that matters, and it is the hack where we all agree collectively to stop using money as a means of organizing ourselves. Transitioning off money as a form of social organization is precisely how we overcome the industrial age economies that we have used to organize ourselves for the last few hundred years and fully transition into the digital age. At +Occupy Wall Street the #freegan groups hacked the system and got things done by visiting all the businesses around Zuccotti Park late at night and asking for the food they would otherwise throw away. +Starbucks Coffee was particularly generous with their garbage, siphoning bags of perfectly edible baked goods that fed dozens of people. These are the kinds of system hacks that actually generate change, but they aren’t the sort that are going to attract the dollars of a venture capitalist. These are the system hacks that the homeless communities have known for […]
March 30, 2012

“THE BLIND JUGGLING MACHINES CAN JUGGLE…

“The Blind Juggling Machines can juggle balls without seeing them, and without catching them. Most of them, in fact, can juggle balls without any sensory feedback, such as sound or contact; this is achieved by exploiting the dynamics of these machines to achieve stable ball trajectories. This is very much in contrast to how most human beings would perform the same task: we would use our eyes to determine where to put our hands, for example.” http://raffaello.name/dynamic-works/juggling-machines http://vimeo.com/30373506
March 30, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM ALEX SCHLEBER

The chicest of all favelas: The Cult of Done. I’m just catching up, excuse the archiving. No shame being part of the long tail. Alex Schleber originally shared this post: *Public Service Announcement: We’re at 42 / 366 = 11.5% of your year have already expired.* Good reminder from the Cult Of Done Manifesto: “…12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.” So I guess that makes G+ the “ghost of Done” too…!? Food for thought. Bre Pettis | I Make Things – Bre Pettis Blog – The Cult of Done Manifesto Dear Members of the Cult of Done,. I present to you a manifesto of done. This was written in collaboration with Kio Stark in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done. The Cult of Done …
March 30, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM BRAD SNOWDER

As I’ve discussed with +Jon Lawhead before, the neutrino results are a good opportunity to take stock of the way science handles its PR outfit. I was worried for a bit that we’d just chalk the whole thing up to normal science without thinking critically about how the announcement went down, so I’m glad to see them take responsibility for their mistakes, Brad Snowder originally shared this post: Two leaders of “Faster-Than-Light” Neutrino Team Resign On the morning of September 22, 2011, OPERA spokesperson Antonio Ereditato announced to the world that members of the OPERA experiment had observed neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.
March 30, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM AZIMUTH

Azimuth originally shared this post: A paper on networks, systems biology and medicine: “Proceeding from a topological description of these networks to an appreciation of their role in defining human disease requires recognition of a few important organizing principles derived from network theory. In brief, any network can be viewed as a collection of linked nodes, the distribution of which can range from random to highly clustered. Biological networks are not random collections of nodes and links, but evolve as clustered collections of genes, regulatory RNAs, proteins, or metabolites. Biological and pathobiological networks are scale-free; contain few highly connected nodes (hubs) and bottlenecks (nodes that link different highly connected clusters to each other, gaining, as a result, high ‘betweenness centrality’; manifest the small-world effect and disassortativity (highly connected nodes, or hubs, typically avoid linking to one another); and contain motifs with predictable functional consequences (feedback loops, oscillators, etc.). All of the biological networks relevant to disease manifest these properties, as well, which gives us a starting point from which to begin to identify those subnetworks or modules that are responsible for a specific pathobiological process or a specific disease.” Of course we should expect some of the general principles here may apply in ecology and elsewhere, too! http://www.barabasilab.com/pubs/CCNR-ALB_Publications/201111-00_WIREs-SysBiology/201111-00_WIREs-SysBiology.pdf
March 30, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM ALEXANDER KRUEL

Alexander Kruel originally shared this post: “In 2010, Cornell researchers Michael Schmidt and Hod Lipson published a groundbreaking paper in “Science” titled, “Distilling Free-Form Natural Laws from Experimental Data”. The premise was simple, and it essentially boiled down to the question, “can we algorithmically extract models to fit our data?”” Automated science, deep data and the paradox of information – O’Reilly Radar Bradley Voytek:
March 29, 2012

AXELROD’S EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION TO #COMPLEXITY…

Axelrod’s excellent introduction to #complexity as it pertains to the #socialsciences . I took the Standing Ovation Problem article from this collection, and there are easily a dozen more open in tabs on my browser opened from this page that I can’t wait to go through. http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/abmread.htm It is unfortunate that they chose the acronym ABM, because Latour’s Actor Network Theory is so much more fun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory On-Line Guide for Newcomers to ABM (Axelrod and Tesfatsion) On-Line Guide for Newcomers to. Agent-Based Modeling in the Social Sciences. Robert Axelrod and Leigh Tesfatsion. Last Updated: 19 February 2012. Site Maintained By: Leigh Tesfatsion: Professor of Eco…
March 29, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM KYLE BROOM

kyle broom originally shared this post: “There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art–in my own case the art of poetry–means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. ” Hot Ink Adrienne Rich Refuses to Accept National Medal. Hot Ink is the Pacific Northwest’s premiere online magazine of thought and writing. Daily essays about current books, magazines, press, pop culture, and…
March 29, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM BRUCE HEAD

Bruce Head originally shared this post: “With no central planner or decider, both brains and bee hives can resolve their inner differences to commit to single courses of action. To watch a group of bees is to see a frenzy of different interests coalesce into a single, clear thought. This is analogous to neurons in the brain, which must reach a consensus on how to achieve a behavioral goal by positioning the body in space. Bees in a hive must do something similar when deciding where to move the superorganism that is the swarm … The remarkable unifying theme in all of these systems is how an aggregate swarm intelligence is built from just a few kinds of simple, local interactions between agents. Both neurons and bees are presumably unaware of how their impulses and signals transcend the individual, and lay the substrate for a grander, collective intelligence.” You Have a Hive Mind: Scientific American There is a deep connection between the way your brain and a swarm of bees arrives at a decision
March 29, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM KATKA FILIPOVÁ

Clarke is dead on target in this video. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and Clarke is a wizard. Katka Filipová originally shared this post:
March 29, 2012

RESHARED POST FROM JEREMY SHIPLEY

Krauss gets destroyed in this review. David Albert is a total boss. Even his glancing blows completely rip apart contemporary metaphysics and religious practice. If you are a fan of intellectual steam-rolls, read this. Jeremy Shipley originally shared this post: This is a good review. I’d be interested in second opinions on what Krauss is saying. ‘A Universe From Nothing,’ by Lawrence M. Krauss Lawrence M. Krauss argues that the laws of quantum mechanics answer our most profound questions.
January 5, 2008

CYBORGS

link thx dc
January 10, 2008

SUPER HERO

Mech Warrior One Step Closer to Reality Thanks dc.
January 16, 2008

MONKEYWALKER

From NYT: Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot, a Step That May Help Humans “It’s walking!” Dr. Nicolelis said. “That’s one small step for a robot and one giant leap for a primate.” This is the same guy who got a monkey to control a robot arm with its thoughts alone back in ’03.
January 18, 2008

YES IT IS

Watch for the abacus. Good stuff. Full tutorial on the arm’s design here. Thanks, Lally!
January 27, 2008

ANDREEVNA

Hopefully this post will encourage Lally to start regularly posting on her blog again, which is now on the blog roll. This is a major step in our relationship. Lally Andreevna To that end:
February 1, 2008

THE PROCESS OF DESIGN

From NewScientist: Artificial letters added to life’s alphabet The molecular pair that worked surprised Romesberg. “We got it and said, ‘Wow!’ It would have been very difficult to have designed that pair rationally.”
February 12, 2008

SLAVE SCREAMS

he’s going to cause the system to fall Asimo can now operate in an environment with people as well as other Asimos. Robots working together will wirelessly share data such as battery levels and the closest unit to a given task. Each works autonomously based on the networked information. Another new AI function allows Asimo to estimate the path of people walking toward it based on their speed and direction and to avoid them by stepping back if necessary. And when Asimo’s battery level falls below a certain level, it will return to its recharging station and power up. via LTM
February 12, 2008

THE DEVILS OF TRUTH

steal the souls of the free In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power? via SuicideBots
February 12, 2008

HUMAN JUNK

just words and so much skin
February 12, 2008

CONSCIOUSNESS ABHORS AN ARTIFACT

Reading through old Dennettalia, I stumbled on this: Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds (3) Robots are artifacts, and consciousness abhors an artifact; only something natural, born not manufactured, could exhibit genuine consciousness. … If consciousness abhors an artifact, it cannot be because being born gives a complex of cells a property (aside from that historic property itself) that it could not otherwise have “in principle”. There might, however, be a question of practicality. We have just seen how, as a matter of exigent practicality, it could turn out after all that organic materials were needed to make a conscious robot. For similar reasons, it could turn out that any conscious robot had to be, if not born, at least the beneficiary of a longish period of infancy. Making a fully-equipped conscious adult robot might just be too much work. It might be vastly easier to make an initially unconscious or nonconscious “infant” robot and let it “grow up” into consciousness, more or less the way we all do. This hunch is not the disreputable claim that a certain sort of historic process puts a mystic stamp of approval on its product, but the more interesting and plausible claim that a certain sort of process is the only practical way of designing all the things that need designing in a conscious being. Such a claim is entirely reasonable. Dennett goes on to argue that this claim is reasonable, because it is a specific case of the more general claim: (4) Robots will always just be much too simple to be conscious. Dennett compares the possibility of building a conscious artifact to the possibility of creating an animation that is indistinguishable from real video. I suggest that Dennett simultaneously overvalues the sophistication of conscious processes, and underestimates the progress of our […]
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